Round Top and Crescent Moon Couloir

It's getting really close to going home time, but we managed to squeeze one more backcountry trip in. This one was a recommendation from Guermo, it's called Round Top and is south of Lake Tahoe, a few miles from Kirkwood. We got a great view of Emerald Bay on the way down.

We parked up at a Sno-Park and started hiking, Round Top loomed in the distance. The plan was to do Crescent Moon Couloir which runs down the middle of Round Top, you can't miss it in this photo.

Myself and Liam both had colds and were coughing away as we skinned up. The last section of the ascent involved a grade 2 scramble with our skis/splitboard on our backs. There was a cross with a photo stuck to it half way up which was quite sombering.

We eventually found the drop in point for the couloir and Liam went first. The beginning section was steep and narrow.

But GREAT fun!
 

Once Liam had got round the bend I gave him a minute or two and then dropped in myself.
 

I stopped half way down to steady my nerves and get a photo of the bottom section. It was much wider and full of nice soft snow.
 

Once I could see the exit I caned it down the couloir and came out the bottom whooping! I then hit a patch of ice and slid onto my ass! Liam laughed as he'd done exactly the same thing.

We then got some great turns in on the snow below the couloir.
 

We rode as far down the mountain as we could and then skinned up and headed back to the car. My directions were a little off and we came out on the road about a mile and a half from the car and had to hike back up. Well worth it though!

Bradley Hut

It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted a trip report up, so here we go...

After having such a great time in the Sierra Club huts last time, we decided to hit up the Bradley Hut again. Last time we were there we spotted loads of great terrain to ride and were itching to check it out. The team this time consisted of Graham (Trilby), Liam (one of our next door neighbours), Kate (Liam's girlfriend over here for a visit) and of course myself.

Day 1

The plan was to head up to the top of Granite Chief at Squaw on Sunday and then skin over to the ridge above Bradley Hut. However, due to the wind, Granite was closed so we ended up taking the Funitel up, then onto East Broadway, down Shirley Lake and starting our trip from there.

Me and Liam at the bottom of Shirley Lake getting ready to set off.

We skinned up the opposite side of the Shirley drainage but soon ran out of snow. Me, Liam and Kate with our skis/splitboards a-framed and Squaw in the background.

We picked up a trail and followed it for a while. We eventually got back to some snow and skinned up to a ridge overlooking Bradley Hut.

We could have kept the high line and made it to the hut quicker but we spotted a nice face with some nice looking snow on so we decided to get some turns in. It was about 4pm but we still had plenty of daylight left. I went first with the excuse of taking photos and then Graham followed, plenty of lines for everyone.

Then Kate put in some nice turns.

Last but not least, Liam.

It was some of the nicest spring snow I've ridden this season. We then continued on down through some trees and eventually picked up a trail at the bottom. Me and Liam had been to the Bradley Hut a couple of weeks ago so knew where it was but still had some trouble finding a route to it as the snow coverage was a lot lower. We found the Pole Creek trail but weren't sure which side of the hut we were on. I volunteered to check out one direction and found that it just kept going down so turned around and the hut was about ten minutes in the opposite direction. It was about 7pm by the time we got there so we got the fire going, cooked dinner and then hit the sack.

Day 2


I was up early the next morning so got the fire going and some water boiling for porridge and coffee.

We all got geared up and picked a slope for our first descent. The hut is surrounded by fantastic terrain, it's like having a ski resort all to yourselves, except no chair lifts!

We had quite a mellow hike up to the west of the hut and made it to the top in no time.

There were some great views from the top. The face just below the trees in the far right of this photo was the first descent Craig, Liam and myself had made two weeks ago on our Pacific Crest Trail trip.

Of the two peaks in the foreground, the left is Silver Peak which we'd also ridden a couple of weeks ago (shortly after Guermo). Our route to the hut the day before was across the ridge to the right of the right hand peak.

We had a great ride back down to the bottom and stopped off at the hut for a spot of lunch. We then headed up to a cliff band we had spotted from the mornings hike.

We stopped on a windlip under the cliff to get ready for the ride down.

We were treated to more fantastic spring corn snow...

...which continued all the way to the bottom. We were considering one more hike but everyone was pretty knackered so called it a day and just chilled in the late afternoon sun outside the hut.

Day 3


We had a bit of a later start the next day. After breakfast and cleaning the hut we set off for Silver Peak.

On the way up the weather was looking pretty fierce and we had to shelter in some trees to have lunch before making the final short hike to the top of Silver Peak. No-one else could be bothered to go for the summit but I skinned up the last little section for a few extra turns.

Just as we were getting ready to ride down to Pole Creek the weather cleared and we got more great turns in fantastic snow. Here's Graham enjoying it!

We could have made the hike out shorter by traversing closer to the highway but decided just to get in as many turns as we could. Kate...

...Liam...

 ...and finally me!

There was no snow on the logging road which is the route back to the highway so we had to strap our skis/splitboards/snowshoes to our backs and hike out but we made it by around 5pm and waited for Tom to come and pick us up. Another great trip but sadly probably the last to Bradley hut this year. Hopefully be back next year and will definately be heading out there.